Author
Topic: up in smoke (Read 1578 times)

Hi, I'm having a problem with my pizzas burning in my WFO. The deck is around 780 to 825F and the dome is in the high 900's. it seems as soon as it hits the deck its just produces a big cloud of smoke and the bottom turns black. When I remove the pizza from the deck theres this big black spot left of the deck where the pizza use to be. getting very frustrating, any advice? Thanks.

I kinda had that happen on my first few pies in my home oven when I'd heat the oven then crank up the broiler a really long time, but I think it was because I was using a really low hydration dough because it seemed easier to open with me being new. Hydration may have nothing to do with it though, just shooting that out there.

That was way way way way before I ever even thought about pizza being a serious hobby and way before I found this forum.

no oil here just flour water IDY or sourdough starter at 65% hydration or what ever Craig was reccomending for his recipe with the sourdough starter recipe. I dont know maybe I'm not letting the oven settle down before I use it.

no oil here just flour water IDY or sourdough starter at 65% hydration or what ever Craig was reccomending for his recipe with the sourdough starter recipe. I dont know maybe I'm not letting the oven settle down before I use it.

Ok, everything seems fine at the outset. But something is amiss. If you have time to post your entire work flow, that will get you alot further. How do you measure the deck and dome temp? Something (as you know) just isn't "right". Help us help you.

ADY, IDY, Starter? Cold ferment ? Room temp ferment? How long in bulk, how long in balls? Blood type? Wife's maiden name? Just kidding. Glad you are here.

LOL, yeah you know one thing I did notice as the night went on they seem to get better, but that was only the last 5 pies. I tried to follow Craig's recipe, but I let it bulk rise in my refrigerator instead of igloo like he recommends. last week end in California it was super hot so I tried to stagger the dough balls from refrigerator because I didn't want them to over ferment. Man the possibility's are endless.

no oil here just flour water IDY or sourdough starter at 65% hydration or what ever Craig was reccomending for his recipe with the sourdough starter recipe. I dont know maybe I'm not letting the oven settle down before I use it.

When I asked about oil, I meant are you using any on the outside of the ball to keep it from sticking to the container during fermentation?

Logged

"We make great pizza, with sourdough when we can, commercial yeast when we must, but always great pizza."Craig's Neapolitan Garage

I've had it happen to me. Try reballing warm dough 2 hrs before bake time using just flour and then plate them @RT to rise a little. Sometimes the oil can gum on to the dough, making a carbon mess of the bench flour when you throw it in.

You may want to reduce the oil amount you use for proofing. Try proofing with flour instead next time, or finding a way to use a dough tray or plate instead of a container.

If you don't have really sticky dough, you won't need as much bench flour.

I've used AP, BF, combo AP + riceflour, combo BF + Semolina, combo BF, Sem, and RF... what it comes down to is that if your dough is really sticky, you need to change something. Your dough should not be hard to get off the peel, to the point where you overload with peel flour.